Team SABR
by TheTameLionsHonor
Summary: The world of Remnant is home to the Huntsmen and Huntresses but the legendary Strider program is the one that makes the most lethal warriors, such as Team SABR, a group of Striders tasked with watching over Beacon academy. But when Beacon falls, the leader of the group is forced to learn the value of heart thanks to Ruby Rose herself. Please review.
1. Prologue: New Blood

"And as of this moment, you are all team RWBY!"

The crowd cheers for the final, and perhaps most impressive, team to be announced. However, in the back sits four second-year students. One is a large man dressed in a black trench coat with a matching scarf and a colossal single-edged blade on his back, his skin is incredibly pale and his face bears a scar that stretches to his short, oily black hair.

The second is a shorter man with silver gauntlets, an orange scarf, a grey shirt with a black pattern and blonde hair that covers one of his auburn eyes.

The third is in between the orange and black scarf wearers in terms of height and brandishes an ocean blue scarf with a long-sleeved green combat shirt, blue jeans and two tonfa on his belt. With a flaming head of long, red hair over eyes that shine like gold coins.

The final one has grey cat-ears, a grey cat tail, a blue-grey ensemble and a pure white scarf that matches the hilt of the dagger, expertly hidden on his boot. His hair is just as grey as his catlike features and one of his eyes is blue and the other was a deep brown.

"That's the one?" asked the large member.

"Without a doubt," says the one with a blue scarf.

The one with an orange scarf studies the girl in the red hood, who was now leading a first-year team, "May I ask something Soren?"

Soren, the one with the blue scarf, turned to Rick, "Yes, what is it?"

Rick looks at each member of the team. Axel, the one with the white scarf, Blade, the one in black and their leader, Soren, "Why are you so interested in finding the strongest people in the new batch?"

Soren looks down, "our mission has taken too long, it has become obvious that we need help if we plan to take on the White Fang in earnest. Come, the ceremony's over. Let's get some food and discuss our next move."


	2. Chapter 1: Three Months Later

Rick watches his phone carefully. Axel walks in, finishing off a fish he had either caught himself or took from some unexpecting salesman, likely the latter but Rick holds his tongue.

"You're still using that primitive thing? I'd think that the brains of this group would try and upgrade," Axel remarks.

Soren, who was reading quietly in the corner, speaks up, "age has not to do with quality Axel. What worked in the past may still be useful in our time."

Rick smirks as Axel rolls his eyes, "my phone's durable, can make calls without a relay and can look up long-dead files."

Axel expression changes, "huh, really? I might have to get one of my own then."

"Just try not to steal one, we had enough trouble getting that bounty off your head the last time you stole an antique," Blade remarks from his bed.

"I thought it was useful to our mission!" Axel defends.

Rick sighs, "And yet instead of returning it, you pawned it for more drinking money."

"My personal afflictions are my own egghead."

Soren looks up from his book, "so you admit that it's a problem?"

Axel tosses the fish head in a trash can, "I've always known it, I just don't like talking about it."

Soren nodded, "acknowledgement is the first step towards recovery," he turns his attention towards Rick, "so, what are you looking at?"

Rick holds up the phone, Blade and Axel take note, it shows a video of Yang Xiao Long striking her opponent, Mercury Black, in the leg, and apparently breaking it after the fight was over.

"Damn, I could feel that from here," Axel jokes.

"Tough and blonde, I like her," Blade continues.

"Dishonoring, I do not approve."

Rick reverses the footage, "look again."

He continues up the phone and the team looks at it closely.

"Did he just… glitch or something?" Axel asks.

Blade shakes his head, "no one but Special-A's can get up that fast."

Rick nods, "exactly, I think we just might've found ourselves a saboteur."

"So what do we do?" Soren asks.

Rick looks back at his phone, "someone should tell team RWBY, I would recommend you Soren but since you're our leader…"

"Exactly, I am the leader, so no one can tell me not to go."

"Alright then, Yang's probably in a bad mood so you should talk to her sister, Ruby."

Axel raises an eyebrow, "we know that it's team RWBY."

"No, no, their leader is Ruby Rose, Yang's sister."

"Because that's not confusing at all," Blade says sarcastically.

Axel chuckles and Soren rolls his eyes, "what about the headmaster? Should I tell him as well?"

Rick thinks for a moment, "Let's wait until we have more definitive proof. Even though we're second-year students, this could be interpreted as a stretch."

Soren smiles, "Thank you as always for your insight Rick."

"Never a problem, my friend."

Blade stretches, "while you do that, I'm gonna take a shower."

"Save some hot water for me Blade!" Axel says.

As Soren leaves the room and Blade leaves for the showers, Rick pulls Axel aside.

"Can I trust you Axel?"

"Huh? Um, sure, why?"

"I have a delicate task for you, one I want to be as discrete as possible."

Axel frowns, "you're gonna ask for Loki aren't you?"

"I'm going to need that master thief inside you if this mission is to be successful, I need you to go into the Beacon database and get me all of the background info on Mercury that you can."

"Isn't he from a different school?"

"Loki can figure it out."

"Heh, I'm sure he can. I'm on it Rick!"

Axel straps his thief belt on and dashes out of the room. Blade rests his back on the wall outside. Axel had gone too fast to notice him and Rick was none the wiser. As Blade finally made his trek to the showers, he had think out loud.

"What are you up too Rick?"


	3. Chapter 2: Player vs Strider

Soren steps in front of the door to Team RWBY's room. He knocks once and hears someone dive out of the window. Slightly confused, Soren puts a hand near his blade and knocks again, this time, Yang opens the door.

"Um, who are you?" She asks.

Soren bows slightly, "greetings Yang, I wish to know where Ruby is."

Yang scoffs, "she's watching the next battle."

"Many thanks," Soren begins to walk away, "Yang?"

Yang stops closing the door, "yeah?"

"I believe you."

Yang stands breathless for a moment as Soren turns a corner and vanishes from sight.

Meanwhile, in the maintenance hallway…

"Mercury? What are you doing?" Ruby asks, her heart sinking with every word.

Mercury smiles as Pyrrah and Penny's names were called.

Ruby stops in horror, "no…"

Mercury chuckles, "ooh, polarity vs metal… that could be bad."

Ruby reaches for her scythe but soon realizes it wasn't there as Mercury takes his stance.

"Sorry Ruby, but it's time for you to take a nap."

"I wouldn't recommend trying that…"

Mercury turns around and saw Soren walking towards him, weapons in hand.

Mercury scowls, "and who the hell are you?"

"My name is not important. What you should know is my mission. Investigating the White Fang and right now, you're in the way of that mission. Yield now or prepare to have your blood spilled."

Mercury laughs, "You saying that you're gonna fight me?"

Soren glares at him, stopping Mercury's laugh, "No, I'm going to kill you."

Ruby is stunned, as is Mercury but he doesn't back down as he readies himself for a real fight.

"I don't care who you are bud, you're gonna wish you had left me alone."

"I need to talk to Ruby. You were about to attack Ruby. I gave you a chance to walk away and you did not. This battle is of your own choosing… You have chosen poorly."

"Is that so? Show me the error of my ways sensei."

Ruby looks on as the two stare each other down. _Are they really about to kill each other?! Why is this happening? If only I hadn't left my scythe behind…_

Mercury and Soren slowly step towards each other, eyes locked and fists up. Mercury eventually can't take the tension anymore and charges Soren, leading with a flying kick but getting himself caught in midair.

"What?!"

"Foolishness…"

Soren tosses Mercury aside and readies his two blades.

Ruby can't help but become curious about the new weapons, as she had never seen swords with their design before. They looked like tonfa but with blades that seemed to glow a purple color.

Mercury punches the floor and gets up, more pissed off than anything else. With a defiant cry, Mercury charges again and attempts to perform a slide kick, however the agile Soren effortlessly dodges the attack and counters with a downward slash. The blade hits its mark and Mercury is forced to jump back up as quickly as possible.

"Hmm, you're not as quick as in your video. That settles it, you're one of our saboteurs."

"Think you're so clever do you? Laugh this off!"

Mercury shoots out a bunch of kicks that sends his wind-like energy attacks out. Soren is caught off-guard by the long-ranged assault and is bounced around a bit before regaining his footing and dodging most of the other shots. However, Mercury is behind the last shot and manages to deliver a powerful kick to Soren's chest, sending him flying into the boiler room. Soren hits a metal canister hard and sees Mercury lunging for a strike. Soren, having identified the incoming attack, jumps above Mercury and disappears into the copper pipes and tubes that lined the large room's ceiling in a maze-like tangle.

Mercury, never one to be outdone, jumps in after Soren, swiftly realizing that there wasn't much light in the Christmas light tangles of pipes and meters, leaving him vulnerable to being blindsighted by the much more shadow-attuned Soren. Soren takes this opportunity and strikes from the darkness, acting as a blur in the shadows in order to combat the speedy Mercury. After being knocked around for a bit, Mercury drops down and dashes out of the room. He turns around and sees Soren hot on his heels. Mercury looks ahead of him for an exit but finds that he had run straight into the business end of Ruby's scythe.

"Eat lead you jerk!"

Mercury flies backward from Ruby's scythe blast and crashes headfirst into a wall, knocking him completely unconscious. Soren eases up and looks at Ruby.

"Excellent shot."

Ruby repositions her scythe to point at Soren, "who are you? What the heck's going on here?"

Soren humbly bows, "I am Soren Blazer, leader of Team SABR. While looking at the footage of Yang's match, my tactician noticed something odd. I decided to let you know since Yang herself was likely in no mood to talk. Imagine my surprise when I saw Mercury was here, perfectly fine."

"Are you going to kill him now?"

"Relax, it was intimidation, nothing more."

"So is that all you wanted from me?"

"I may have a few more questions for you, but that can wait."

"Good, if that's the case then… Ohmygosh those swords are so cool! What are they made of? Do they transform into guns? What's that cool purple glow? Does it help in any way?"

Ruby keeps bombarding Soren with questions, leaving no time for him to answer any of them. Overwhelmed by Ruby's sudden forwardness, Soren breaks away and disappears from sight.

Left alone with an unconscious Mercury, Ruby can't help but be miffed, "well that was rude! I might have overdone it a bit again though… I really need to work on this whole 'social' thing."


	4. Chapter 3: A Rose's Thorn

"Penny…" Ruby says weakly as the people fled the stadium.

Soren stands at the entrance to the maintenance hallway. He looks back to see a girl with green hair pick up the unconscious Mercury. She stares Soren down before vanishing, "Rick, did you get that?"

Rick picks up the mic from in the dorm room as Axel and Blade geared up, "searching now… Emerald Sustrai. No surprise, she's in the same team as Mercury Black."

"Then we have our lead, send Blade here to help me out. Fear has spread across the island…"

"Hell, I know what that means…"

Soren looks up at the domed energy shield that protected the open stadium, "I can see the storm clouds and the Grimm are likely already on the move."

Soren looks back and sees Ruby, still sobbing as she looks at the broken form of Penny. Soren almost felt pity for her, but emotion was not in the strider vocabulary and as he started pondering this feeling, he hears the caw of a nevermore.

"Hmph, how annoying," he mutters to himself.

"Pyrrha! That thing's gonna break in! You have to move!"

Soren turns to the sound of the voice and sees the boy who had hacked his way into Beacon. Soren hadn't said anything about him, nor had he noticed the guy after the initial discovery of a traitor at Beacon.

"Hey kid," Soren calls out to him, "if you value your life, flee now!"

The guy looks at Soren with a fire not even Soren's greatest enemies had given him. It was the fire of determination.

"If that's how you want it, just promise to stay out of my…"

With a gigantic screech, the nevermore breaks through the shield and dives at the stunned Pyrrha.

Soren jumps high in the air and shifts his blades to duel SMGs, opening fire on the bird-like Grimm, stopping its dive and opening it up to a devastating kick from Ruby.

"Decided to join the fray?" Soren asks.

Ruby looks at him and nods.

"Then it's you and me Ruby!" Soren prepares himself and Ruby positions her scythe at the Nevermore.

The Nevermore lets out an ear-shattering cry and lunges at Soren but is caught off-guard by Soren's SMGs as they switch back into plasma blades, allowing Soren to slip underneath the creature and cut a searing wound into its wing, immobilizing it. Ruby gets a boost from Soren, activates her semblance and, with a mighty overhead swing, chops the large beast in half.

"Hmph, not even a challenge," Soren remarks.

Pyrrha sits motionless, holding onto one of the fragments of Penny's synthetic skin, "Ruby I… I'm so sorry!"

"Me too, but it wasn't your fault."

Jaune walks to Pyrrha's side with her weapons in his hands, "she's right, whoever was on the microphone is behind all of this. It's up to us to make sure they don't take anyone else. Everyone with us?"

The other huntsmen and huntresses in training file in, lockers smashing on the still-fading carcass of the nevermore. Among them was Blade.

"Soren, we ready?" He asks.

Soren nods, "falling in behind you."

Ruby grabs Soren as he was walking away, "hold up! You show up here, beat up a lying jerk, kill one grimm out of the thousands on their way here and you think you can just leave?!"

Soren brushes her arm off of his shoulder, "we have our own war to fight," Soren is left questioning that though. These huntsmen were certainly capable, he figures they could handle themselves and yet, something felt wrong about leaving them. However, Soren sticks to his blade and he and Blade leave the arena.

"Are you okay Blade?"

Blade remained silent.

Soren sighs, "I know what it's like to lose a member of your own kind…"

"When there's so few robot's out there though… Watching one die just tears away a part of me."

"Indeed, a part of you that you can't let go, right?"

Blade inhales and looked up, "darkness comes for all of us eventually though… Are you afraid of that day?"

Soren shakes his head, "I no longer fear the sleepless night. There's nothing left for me to truly fight for, that's part of why I joined the Striders."

Blade nods, "with the Strider Program, only one thing matters in the end."

"Results." But for the first time since he joined them, Soren was unsure.


	5. Chapter 4: Silenced

"Pyrrah!" Ruby's voice booms over the spire that was once Beacon Academy. As Soren looks down from the back of the falling griffon, he sees a flash of silver encase the building ruins in white. In another moment, the spire is encased in ice, Ruby laying silent on the ground next to the frozen Grimm dragon.

Soren's mind fills with panic as he witnesses Cinder burst from the ice, clinging to her bleeding eye that had been struck by a shard. Cinder walks slowly towards Ruby, ready to finish her off.

She was distracted, now was the time to strike down this devil woman. At least, that's what Soren tells himself.

With a defiant cry, Soren breaks from the back of the griffon and calls on his robotic hawk to carry him towards the spire. Cinder hears the robotic caw and looks up to see Soren's scarf blowing in the wind as his Option C shoots down towards her.

"What the…" Cinder says before regaining herself and preparing her flames. It was in vain however, as her bolts of fire were numerous but not accurate enough to down the descending warrior and soon, he was on the ground, posed to strike.

"That scarf, that blade, that robot… You're a strider!"

"And you are a plague on the land, I shall follow in my ancestor's footsteps and rid the world of another who would call themselves a god."

"To think I wasn't the only spy in Beacon… This certainly makes things more interesting. I wonder what she would think when I brought her the head of a strider…"

"Mere speculation Cinder, you are the one being hunted."

Cinder laughs, "I'm a damn Maiden of Fall! Even a strider is but a worm to me! After I'm done with you, I'll kill that girl and finish our plan!"

Soren's anger builds up past the point where he could bottle it. Anyone, anyone but her. He knew not why, nor did he care, he just had to make sure that her light did not die out.

"No, I will kill you for all the lives you've ruined!"

 _How emotional for a strider… Lower rank perhaps? No, something else is going on in his head. Best to take him out quickly._

In a click and a clash, Soren and Cinder were locked in blades, eyeing each other with the hate of those ready to die. With a quick flourish, Soren breaks free and starts striking fast and hard, but each blow seems to bounce off Cinder's enhanced aura. When Soren's guard lets up, Cinder unleashed a single blow that sends Soren flying through an ice column and slamming him against the cold stone of a broken wall.

He had lost his weapons and could only watch as Cinder laughs and burns them up, just like she had done to Pyrrah.

"I had expected more of a strider… Seems like your order disappeared for a reason. You got soft."

"W-witch… Why? What do you gain from… this?"

Cinder chokes a little, "I shall fulfill my destiny and destroy this world… For her."

Soren and Cinder turn to Soren's Option C, which clicks and creates a full-body hologram of the first true strider.

"Gr-grandfather?" Soren mutters.

"It can't be… Is that Strider Hiryu?!"

The hologram ignored Cinder and focuses on Soren, Cinder realizes that it must be a recording.

"Strider of my bloodline, if you are hearing this, you understand what it means to feel. While it is true that most of us are more efficient when we cast aside our humanity, it is a price we should not pay. The ninja before the striders did not require a sacrifice of heart to dethrone the samurai, why should we? You may not fully understand it, but you are beginning too. My Option C should have been passed down to you. It was programmed to listen to one word before activating this. You asked why, and that is the reason you deserve my blade. Carve your own path strider, end the darkness with your true skill."

With that, the hologram fades and the Option C caws as it shoots out the hilt of the legendary cipher, Falchion. Soren catches it as Cinder blasts apart the hawk. Soren stands up with a ferocity in his pose. Cinder is furious and determined to vent it out on something or someone.

It would be for naught, as Cinder no longer finds herself fighting the enraged Soren but a master of the blade. For three brief minutes as they clash, Soren was Hiryu, fighting with his skill and his power. As ice cracks and splits around the two fighters, silence came in one loud slash.

Soren holds his blade high as Cinder chokes on her own blood, "do not grieve, you shall not die. I have only robbed you of your most powerful weapon… the weapon you used to start this madness. Crawl back to your masters and tell them, if you can muster the strength to speak, that the striders have returned and that they are after your blood."

With that, Soren leave Cinder coughing on the rooftop as he scoops up the unconscious Ruby and jumps down.

Qrow stands at the bottom, seemingly waiting for him, "good job Soren."

"You knew this would happen… you knew who I was."

Qrow sighs, "I had a feeling you were one of them, yeah… I also knew about my niece's gift. I didn't know it'd come to this though. Suppose I should thank you."

Soren looks at Ruby, she was cold. He gives her back to Qrow, discomfort in his eyes, "we are watching Qrow, the striders can only ignore so much before…"

"I'll be there, just try not to do anything crazy before we settle this mess out ourselves. We have a get-out-of-fuck-up free card with you guys, don't want to waste it prematurely."

"You jest at this destruction?!"

"I'm just stating the obvious, the striders didn't help when the Grimm first showed, why would they show up now?"

Soren glares at Qrow but says nothing and vanishes into the shadows.


	6. Chapter 5: Meio's Last Warrior

"My queen! We need help!"

"Hazel? Adam? What has happened?"

Doctor Watts quickly gets up, "Tyrian? He's injured! I'll take him to the medical bay!"

Hazel hands the unconscious Tyrian to Watts and he hurries out of the room.

Hazel struggles to find words but succeeds, "my queen, I was meeting with Adam when Tyrian showed up saying you had requested him to join us. I was suspicious but unprepared to disobey an order from you, so I had him take a scouting party while Adam and I ran stock of our inventory."

Adam continued from that point, "not long after he left, we lost contact and were preparing to investigate when we were attacked."

"Attacked?" Salem says in disbelief, "by who? Atlas? Qrow?"

"No… a Strider, I assume the same one who robbed our dear Fall Maiden of her voice."

"And you didn't evacuate immediately, Adam?"

"It was one man versus a thousand of us… We didn't…"

"I warned you not to underestimate him Hazel!" Salem took a breath, "Adam, what's the damage?"

"Our base in Vale is… We've been wiped out my dear…"

"We were evacuating when we flew over Tyrian and his crew. He was the only survivor… If he survives…"

Cinder motions for Emerald and whispers to her.

"I'm going to check on Tyrian."

Salem nods, "Hazel, go with her. Mercury, go with Adam to discuss this… Complication."

A few minutes later…

"Doctor?"

"Ah Hazel, and Emerald too? I think you'll both be disappointed to hear that Tyrian will live."

Hazel sighs, "Well at least things will remain interesting," he pauses, "Watts, we need to leave."

"What?" Watts and Emerald say in unison. Watts continues, "what ever for?"

"A Strider wiped us out and according to Cinder, they are not happy with us… If we met the Striders at full-force, we'd be wiped out in a matter of minutes! We need to leave before our intestines become neckties…"

"Woah," Emerald stops him, "Salem has a plan, right? She always has a plan. Let's all just take a breath and talk to her."

"She's right Hazel, you're out of character. We'll just talk to Salem and develop a strategy."

They nod and all of them leave.

Meanwhile…

"Four million dollars?! The hell Adam?!"

"He scorched our equipment and slew some of my best lieutenants, and I'm being conservative with that estimate. We did manage to save some of the drone soldiers from Atlas though."

"We'll need them if we plan on beating that guy, he went easy on me and I was left without legs for a month."

"Indeed, I think we should…"

"Excuse me," a male voice interrupts, "a woman named Salem has requested me."

Back in Salem's chamber…

"That's it?!" Hazel panics, "we're going to do nothing?!"

Salem sighs, "You could do nothing without getting yourselves killed. This is why I've enlisted some extra help…"

The door behind them opens and Salem turns, "speaking of which… Please welcome our newest member. He'll solve our Strider problem, won't you, Solo the Assassin?"

"You have nothing to worry about… My liege."


	7. Chapter 6: History of the Striders

Ruby walks into Qrow's room with some of his remedy.

"Hey uncle Qrow… I have your medicine."

"Thanks sweetie," he begins to drink it, "I'll be fine from here."

"Well… Actually, I have a question."

Qrow gives her a curious look, "sure, hit me."

"Did I really stop Cinder with my power?"

"Cued in on that, did ya? It's true you froze that Grimm Dragon and gave her quite the blinding light… But it was another that took her down."

"Is this another fairy tale?"

"Nope… Just history."

 _Before there was Grimm, Fauna, dust, auras, semblances and even all of Remnant, there was Earth. Earth was a world of a much more secure state than our world, you'd never even recognize it as one in the same. In its ancient history was a group of warriors known as ninja, who have traveled through legend to today. Oft forgotten though, is the group that was inspired by them, the Striders. The Striders were at first, a splinter group that focused less on the of traditional spying and sabotage methods of the ninja and instead on the rarely used assassination techniques. However, as ninjutsu faded into history, the Striders only grew in power and secrecy._

"Wait, so the Striders didn't die off with the ninja?"

"Nope, they lived on and kept their methods alive via secrecy. That's not to say they weren't invested though. Tell me what these names have in common, Adolf Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Osama Bin Laden and Pablo Escobar."

"They're all villains and criminals from Earth, right?"

"And, they were all slain by Striders. Wonder why Hitler would kill himself when he still had his niece to take care of? Where did Jack the Ripper go after his string of murders? How did police and SWAT teams track down Pablo Escobar and Osama with the current level of tech?"

"Wow… I never thought about that."

"Stay sitting, there's more…"

 _Soon though, a man in northern Europe found the secret to unlimited power… With it, he single-handedly conquered and enslaved the world. It was then he was targeted by the Striders, who were promptly wiped out by Meio's genetic creations and magic infused soldiers. Then, in his two thousand and forty-eighth year as ruler of Earth, the last Strider took the mission. His name, was Strider Hiryu and he slew Grandmaster Meio, ending his regime and changing the course of history._

"So because of Hiryu, the Striders lived on while all other ninja disappeared?"

"Bingo, and they are the most lethal of fighters. Seeing one on the opposite side is akin to putting a gun to your head. Striders are ruthless, emotionless and completely determined to complete their mission, whatever the cost."

"That's… Horrific."

"The good news is that they're also rare. The Strider Program is extremely exclusive and they only intervene on matters that go far deeper than political wrangling, though they have been known to take certain jobs for a certain price."

"So Cinder being the new Maiden of Fall is why…"

"The Striders have returned, you're right. And the one that saved you was a B-Class Strider named Soren Blazer."

Ruby stopped and stared at Qrow, "Soren… Saved me?"

 **TO BE CONTINUED IN VOLUME 2**


End file.
